Gamedrop

What's Wrong With D.O.A.? ... Nothing!

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In honor of last weeks theatrical release of DOA: Dead or Alive. I’d like to address a topic that has had a lot of people up in arms since the release of the first DOA game, the ladies.

First of all, I’m going to openly admit, right here, right now, I am a fan of the DOA series. Yes, it is the button-mashiest of all the current fighting games around, but it does have some really good fighting mechanics without the super complex combos of your Tekkens or Virtua Fighters. In fact, DOA4 has been accepted as a standard in a handful of professional gaming leagues, and there are some truly amazing players out there. That alone should give it enough cred to not be brushed off as a “bad” fighting game.

"This Will Be A Good Place to Begin." Halo 3 Viral Marketing?

On Monday, a cryptic message was left by administrator "Adjutant Reflex," on the Halo 3 Bungie forums in bright yellow text: "This will be a good place to begin." "Adjutant" also posted more baffling dispatches at fan Web site Bungie.org, causing a stir among forum members and causing Web sites to speculate that another "I Love Bees"-style viral marketing campaign -- which was done for Halo 2 -- is on the horizon.

Then yesterday at 4:16 a.m., we received a strange e-mail from Xbox. The title simply said, "Look for the signs, the keepers of the flame." And in bold, the weird poem stated, "The enemy is almost upon us / Yet a Journey must commence." Hmmm.

This afternoon, as my co-workers and I went for a cup of coffee outside of our Times Square office, we couldn't help but notice these noisy protesters wearing blazing yellow T-shirts. They bore the acronym "S.O.T.A.," which apparently stands for "Society of the Ancients." Sidewalk stalkers are nothing new in Times Square; we're got our fair share of Scientologists, comedy club promoters, the Falun Dafa, and even angry Star Trek fans. But these guys were different; we recognized a familiar symbol that we had seen a few days earlier in the Bungie forums and then in our inboxes. So we ran upstairs, grabbed a camera and shot some video (just in case). It turns out these oddballs didn't know anything about Halo 3. But they sure knew a lot about aliens...

So is it Halo 3 viral marketing? We'll soon find out. For now, check out the Web site to see what that crazy guy was talking about. Also, more photos after the jump.

Will Skate Rock Harder?

A lot of sites are reporting that EA’s Skate could be the next-gen Tony Hawk-killer that true boarders have been looking forward to for years. With today’s announcement of the Skate soundtrack it looks like EA is going for the jugular since the music in the Tony Hawk games has always been one its biggest selling points. However, Skate apparently has a lot of bases covered, with the old (Ramones and Sex Pistols), the new (The Falcon, The White Stripes), the hardcore (Bad Brains, The Dwarves, and Slayer) and everything in between (Nirvana, N.W.A., ZZ Top). Hit the jump for the entire, awesome lineup.

Yeah. I’m Jealous. So What?

So when the collector in me sees game rooms like this (and this) it really makes me question my commitment. I fully understand that I, in fact, do have a life, and other things that I have to spend money on than video games. At least that’s what I tell myself, because, frankly, I’m jealous… very, very, very jealous.

300 (or so) Words on 'Mad Tracks'

When cart racing just doesn’t do it for you any more, maybe it’s time you turned to spring-coiled mini car racing (although that doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as easily). Mad Tracks is the newest addition to the previously nonexistent list of Xbox Live Arcade racing games. Who knows why developers apparently think cars don’t make for good downloadable content? Either way, Mad Tracks is a welcome addition to XBLA, but it might be targeted a bit more to the casual racers out there.

Overheard at the Pac-Man World Championships

Our good buddy Pete from Game Head was also at the Pac-Man event yesterday, and he heard a little something about us while he was there...

Microsoft rep #1: "Hey, has anyone seen Pac-Man anywhere?" 
Microsoft rep #2: "I think MTV has him in the bathroom...for real."

Wondering just what sort of hijinks we were up to? Well you'll have wait and watch the G-Hole later on to find out. MWAHAHA...

Running in to Major Nelson at the Pac-Man World Championships

At the Pac-Man World Championships, we ran into the man that Xbox 360 fanboys and girls know and love -- namely, Major Nelson (whose real name is Larry Hyrb), the Director of Programming for Xbox Live. He keeps gamers informed of all things Xbox on his blog, including the new Pac-Man Championship Edition, available at 5 a.m. EST tomorrow. Major -- er, Larry -- was a cool guy, and he had us laughing our asses off with his enthusiastic explanation of the whole event (despite his bad run-ins with Pac-Man at the workplace). If there were achievement points for being entertaining, Major Nelson would get the full thousand.

The Future of Pac-Man?

Pac-Man has lasted for 26 years and with new mazes and modes on the way, it'll reach generations beyond what creator Toru Iwatani ever imagined. In fact, it already has: above is a photo of 13 year-old James Rodgers, who is the U.K. champion and placed sixth overall (ahead of legend Billy Mitchell who placed eighth). We didn't get a chance to talk to him, but I heard through the grapevine that he and his dad saw that the tournament was coming up and decided to use their quality time together just beefing up their Pac-Man skills (I guess they don't play catch in the U.K.). That's a pretty amazing feat for such a young kid. But he better watch out, because Billy Mitchell Jr. plans to live up to his dad's legacy:

Pac-Man Legends: Toru Iwatani and Billy Mitchell

So Jaded Cynic had the opportunity to get his Pac-Man marquee signed by two Pac-Man legends -- creator Toru Iwatani and Billy Mitchell, the first person ever to score a perfect score (3,333,360) in Pac-Man in 1999. When we interviewed Iwatani for our upcoming G-Hole segment, he said he had no idea a perfect score could be achieved -- that is, until Billy came along. However today, in this tournament, Billy placed eighth overall (I guess the new version of Pac-Man threw him off a bit). Regardless, Billy was as nice as could be, signing autographs, giving interviews and handing out bottles of his proprietary hot sauce:

Pac-Man Marquee + Creator = Awesomeness

Okay, so I have problems. Number one: I’m a nerd. Number two: I collect things. Number three: I try to do my best to be creative when combining the first two things. Case in point: when the opportunity arises for me to have a few minutes with the creator of one of my all-time favorite video games, I seize it and then go the extra mile.